Arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee” Ezra 10:4 KJV
Arise! For this matter is your responsibility” Ezra 10:4 NASB
It was a climactic moment in the history of the nation. Intermarriage and its attendant idolatry had brought the nation low and led to captivity in Babylon. God, in His infinite mercy, had brought them back to the land after the bitter lessons of Babylon had been learned. Tragically, the old habits began to reappear, and the purity of the line to the Messiah was threatened.
Away in Persia, a young man had spent hours pouring over the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. He was burdened to “seek the law of His God,” to do it, and to teach it. God had been quietly preparing His man for a critical hour. That need unfolded in Ezra 9 and 10. When the problem of intermarriage became “front and center,” word was sent to Ezra, recognizing he was the only man who could handle the problem. God, with His precise timing and foreknowledge, is always aware of future needs and is always prepared.
But our meditation goes beyond Ezra and beyond the bounds of one nation. It exceeds the problem of intermarriage, as serious a danger as that posed to the nation. There was a need that God foresaw and, as a result, there was a Lamb, “foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet 1:20). The words spoken to Ezra could well have been spoken to the Lord Jesus, “This matter belongs to Thee.” There was no one else who could possibly have undertaken the work of redemption. No one else was –
Morally Fit for the Work
He was the only sinless Man Who ever lived. He was without spot or blemish, pure within and without. In His perfect, spotless, sinless character, He was the only fit sacrifice for the altar of Calvary. In the words of Cecil Alexander’s hymn, “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.”
The very best of men raised up by God among the nation were all blemished and broken sons of Adam. Each was in need of forgiveness and salvation, whether a Moses, David, or others. One by one, each individual born into this world showed themselves disqualified for the work of redemption. Only “that Holy thing” born to Mary could accomplish this vital work.
Inherently Fit for the Work
To be a Mediator between God and Man, He must be God and Man at one and the same time. He alone could exhaust all the claims of divine justice. A myriad of angels impaled on a myriad of crosses could not have achieved the same redemption. Only One Who is in Himself the Offended One could take the full measure of judgment due to the offending ones. This Mediator, being deity, could offer a sacrifice of infinite value.
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Humanly Capable of Death
This Mediator, being a Man, could give His life up in a voluntary death to satisfy the claims of sin. While God cannot die, the Man Who died on the middle cross is God. He tasted death in all its dread reality that He might put sin away. Death was the sentence passed on humanity due to sin. Only One upon Whom death had no claim could give His life.
The “matter” of redemption belonged to Him alone. He accomplished it for us and to our eternal blessing. Thus, the One to Whom the matter “belonged” will be the only One to Whom eternal Worship belongs.
Consider
Look at 1 Peter 1:18-21 and note how Peter brings all these themes together.